Energy sports drinks may lead to unhealthy behaviors, smoking habits in teens

Sports and energy drinks are always not a good idea, suggests a new research.

According to the researchers, teens who are fond of having those energy drinks may be more likely to also engage in other unhealthy behaviors like smoking, drinking soda and playing video games for many hours.

The researchers involved 2,800 teens in middle and high schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. They were surveyed by the researchers about how often they drank sport and energy drinks. They were also asked about their other behaviors.

While recording their feedbacks, the researchers found that about 38 percent of the participants consumed sports drinks at least once a week. However, 15 percent of them said that they consumed energy drinks at least once a week.

The researchers then concluded that on an average, teens who consumed sports and energy drinks at least once a week smoked cigarettes, played more hours of video games, drank more servings of sugar-sweetened beverages. Comparatively, participants who consumed sports and energy drinks less than once a week had less affinity to these behaviors.

According to the researchers, the study findings are more troubling because they may indicate a clustering of problem behaviors among some adolescents.

The researchers are also clueless about which came first, the sports and energy drink consumption or the other unhealthy behaviors.

“Based on this study, we can’t blame the sports and energy drinks at all for the higher levels of unhealthy behaviors. It’s just that adolescents who aren’t focused on healthy behaviors are more likely to consume these beverages,” Block said.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the sports drinks are not advisable for the average young athlete as they hardly make any difference in them. As these drinks contain sugar, they could contribute to weight gain and tooth decay. The AAP does not recommend energy drinks for children or teens due to the stimulants, such as caffeine, present in it.

The study was published in the May/June issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.